Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-12-04
DARWIN.
TIE LIFE AID LaBoRs OF THE GREAT
NATURALLY.
Els Kew Lifs-Ths Fly.catchsr on the
Bssgls-A Day at the
Downs.
fpalLMall pudgetl

Darwin left Cambridge IN 1901, ana IL
that year what he styles his "new life
began. It was not IN the sight OF any
Beatrice but in the sailing OF the Beagle
that his call came. a young naturalist
was wanted to accompany Captain fltz'
roy on his voyage of exploration; The
Government applied TO Peacock, the pro.
fessor Of astronomy, and Peacock applied
to Henslow, the professor of botany.
Between Henslow aud Darwin there was
friendship warmer than IS usual be-
tween don and Undergraduate. end
Henslow had seen gifts In the young
man which his easy-going manner OF LIE
and his disinclination to academic study
had concealed from others. HensIow
urged Darwin to go. sit is not, he
said, "that 1 consider you an accom-
plished naturalist, but know that you
will be able TO collect, to observe, and to
note" "To collect that, says Oar
win elsewhere, was the one faculty which
was the making OF him.
At school l collected everything
shells, seals, stamps, medals, minerals.
This love of collecting which makes a
man a systematic naturalist, unless it
makes him maniac or n miser, was very
strong in me, and was incoatestably in
nate, none of my brothers or sisters
having ever had the taste. One little
thing ut this same period is strongly
fixed in my memory. 1t shows how
from my early youth was interested in
the varieties of plants. told another
small boy Ct think it was Leighton, who
afterwards became o well-known bOta-
nist) that / could produce polyanthuses
and primroses of different tints by
sprinkling them with certain liquid
colors. OF course it was q monstrous
story, and have never made the expert
ment.
Naturally it was not only this boyish
love of collecting that made Henslow
recommend Darwin to SO Important n
post as naturalist on the Beagle. Oar
win knew a good deal of chemistry, and
though at Edinburgh his masters re-
preached him rs POGO curantc, lie had
liz his own way picked up much medical
knowledge. He was always, too, an at
tentive listener. He stayed once when
quite a young man in a country-house
with Sir James Macintosh. "Ihere is
something III that youth" said Sir
James, "that interests me greatly "a
compliment which Darwin attributes
TO the real aud deep interest which he IN
his turn had taken in listening to the
great mans talk. For geology, GU
riously enough, he had at first very
hearty dislike, although in his last year
at Cambridge he had taken geological
excursion with Sedgwick. But his
great scientific interest was entomology.
He hunted insects rs keenly as foxes
and would implore his friends to collect
for him during the vacations. 1t will
thus he seen that Henslow's selection of
Darwin-happy though it was in acute
insight into the young mans real
CHARACTERIZED yet a good deal Of actual
experience TO go on. a family conclaye
was held ON the momentous question.
Darwin's father raised objection after
objection. The young man played
economy as trump-card. He had run
through good deal Of money ut Cam
bridge, but he would "have TO be
devilish clever" he argued. "to succeed
in spending more than his allowance
on board the Beagle" "But they tell
me, " replied his father, with II smile,
"that you are very clever in that re-
spect." The casting vote in the con-
clave seems to have been given by his
uncle, Josiah Wedgwood, whose iudg-
ment his father greatly respected, and
to whom Darwin thus owed the two chief
events of his life-his marriage with Mr..
Wedgwood's daughter, which secured
him an unbroken course of domestic
peace, and his voyage in the Beagle.
which made him the first naturalist of
his time and the chief intellectual force
of the century.
THE FLY-CATCHEB or BOARD THE
BEAGLE.
Never did n new life begin amid more
mixed conditions than Darwin's on board
the Beagle. He was, indeed, universally
popular. "The dear old philosopher, II
as the officers called him, or 1.-The fly
catcher" as he was known to the crew,
was prime fayorite. 81 remember
your father" writes Admiral Mellersh,
who was one of Darwins companions on
this voyage, "as distinctly as if | had
been with him this last week on the
Beagle his lovable smile and his con-
versation could never be forgotten by
anybody who had seen the one and heard
the other. Not a word was ever said
against him, and l think he is the
only man I know of whom this
could be said; and it is saying a
great deal, for people who are shut up
together for five years on board q small
ship are naturally liable to tread on each
others corns." Darwin's amiablity is
the more admirable, for he suffered
terribly from sea-sickness. This was his
great trial, and the bad health which he
afterwards suffered has often been attri-
buted to the shocks thus caused to bis
constitution. Another apparent obsts-
Gle to his work was the extreme narrow
ness Of his quarters; but this, he says,
was blessing in disguise. Necessity is
the mother OF invention, and a naturalist
who had to arrange his specimens and
do all his work in a tiny cabin could not
but learn methOdic habits. Into the sci
entiic fruits of his voyage it is unneces-
sary to enter, for are they all not
written in his "Voyage of a Naturalist
on the Beagle the earliest, and, in the
opinion Of many people, the most reada-
BILE of his works? Amongst the results
of the voyage upon Darwin himself was
the abandonment of the idea OF becom-
ing a clergyman. Not that the idea was,
however, ever formally renounced-he
had kept it in his mi d for years-but it
was simply pushed ont by other calls.
He returned to England at the end OF
1886 overwhelmed with materials which
required sorting. arranging, and, above
all, bordering over This was the task
that lay nearest to his hand, and taking
it up he decided the course of his life.
He consecrated it. indeed. but at the
altar, not of the church, but OF science.
ADAY WITH DARWIN AT DOWN.
In 1910 Darwin married his cousin,
Emma Wedgwood. They first settled in
London, but the state of his health made
q change to the country necessary, and
after much wearisome house bunting
they decided to fix on the first house al
all suitable that turned up. The lot fell
upon the little Kentish village OF Down,
trbtoh baoou,a he Io,,o e.. Al. -